Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Word of God that has been proclaimed helps us capture the heart of the human and Christian experience of Blessed Clelia Merloni, manifesting the essential elements of her spiritual countenance. It is the face of a woman whose existence was profoundly marked by suffering and tribulation: the cross was the hallmark of her entire life! However, especially in times of trial, her gaze was always turned to God.

In the second reading, the Apostle Paul is addressing the Christians of Corinth, indicating that love is the “most excellent way” to obtain the greatest charisms (cf 1Cor. 12:31). He affirms: “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous […]; it is not irritable nor does it take into account the evil it receives […]; it excuses all, believes all, puts up with all” (Ibid. 13:4-6). For his part, the evangelist Luke puts these words on Jesus’ lips: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who speak ill of you: (Lk 6:27).

These exhortations seem to find a fresh meaning in the life of Mother Clelia. She made them her own in a radical way, especially when she was wounded by calumnies which led to her removal from governance and even banished from the Institute which she had founded. This was the time of her Calvary. A personal Calvary, difficult and traumatic, marked by solitude and isolation, the weakening of her health and destitution, bringing her to the brink of despair. This was the moment of her encounter with her Spouse, Jesus Crucified. How can we not see her become totally united with the one who, on the cross, suffered abandonment, scorn, disgrace and failure, stripped of all human dignity? Blessed Clelia, following the example of Mary, remained firm and unwavering at the foot of the Cross, not doubting her faith in God, in Him who never abandons his children at any stage of life, especially in the most painful hour, which is often incomprehensible and hard to accept.

Mother Clelia shared the wound in Jesus’ Heart, responding to hostility and contempt with charity. She placed all contradictions before the Tabernacle: that was her resting place. Before the Heart of Jesus, she willed to be reconciled with everyone, finding the strength to forgive all who were persecuting her. Although she had a strong character she displayed extraordinary tenderness in forgetting the offenses she endured, thus witnessing to the winning power of charity, which does not give in to anger, does not hold on to the evil received, but excuses and puts up with everything. She never spoke words that would condemn another, even though many, especially within her Congregation, were hostile to her. She embraced her sufferings and offered them to the Lord as various signs of God’s love for her.

This is the Foundress of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who offered her life as a total oblation. Hers is a charism for our times. Her whole being is a fascinating witness of total self-offering to the Heart of Jesus in order to be a living and credible sign of the love of God for humanity.

Christ always remained central to her faith. She encountered him especially in the eucharistic mystery, in the long hours spent in chapel, even during the night and when she was ill. A witness testified: “After undergoing serious trials, she took refuge in the chapel. Many elderly sisters who saw her there stated that they had to shake her to make her respond, because she was often immersed in the contemplation of God, appearing to be in deep ecstasy” (Informatio, 67).

The centrality of the eucharist was evident in the great importance she gave to the preparation of the altar, the liturgical customs for solemn feast days, and especially toward priests, the ministers of the altar, especially those in crisis, for whom she often prayed.

She was a religious whose attention was always on God; “God alone” was her motto. God, before all and above all things. She wisely chose him as her only ideal in life and trusted in Him alone, especially in light of her lived experience of the collapse of so many human certainties. She was right to recommend to her sisters: “Write in your heart that God alone is your only good and your only refuge.”

She lived entirely and only for God, always certain of his constant presence. She lived immersed in the supernatural, to the point of becoming transformed into a “flame of love”.

Blessed Clelia’s life of prayer was both intense and constant. Witnesses agree that she prayed continually, keeping her gaze fixed on God, studying his Word and integrating her prayer with her actions: her life had become a prayer. She was so attached to prayer that her inner union with God led her to skip meals. “When she was asked: “Mother, how can you stay alive without eating?” she would answer that prayer was her food”. (Informatio, 35)

Here is another aspect of the spiritual face of Blessed Clelia Merloni: precisely because she was a woman who belonged totally to God. S  he was also a woman who totally belonged to her brothers and sisters, especially the little ones, the poor, the simple and the defenseless. Her love for God was inevitably visible in her love for others, seeing them as living images of God. Her heart was open to all, especiallay the sick and suffering; she knew how to make another person’s need her own, to the point of depriving herself of necessities. She always showed a special tenderness, an innate compassion for all kinds of suffering. She took upon herself whatever inconvenience and fatigue was needed to express the thirst for love and the zeal that inflamed her her heart. In works of charity, she knew no limits but immersed herself fully in the problems of others. Those who lived with her stated: “If she a person in difficulty and couldn’t help him, she nearly fainted because of the suffering she felt. Faced with an act of charity that was needed she could see nothing else” (Informatio, 53).

Dear Brothers and Sisters, the Saints and Blesseds are living messages who lived in God. For this, the Church proposes them to us as examples to venerate and imitate. Let us, therefore, open ourselves to the message that Blessed Clelia Merloni transmits to us in auch a clear manner, through her life and works. The moral sufferings made her a strong and corageous woman who was able to witness to the love of Jesus in any circumstances. Uniting oneself to the Heart of Jesus crucified, desiring to live the passion of Christ, brings with it the awareness that embracing the Cross is the essential condition for making life flourish around us and to keep death from prevailing over us, or hatred over love, division over communion. The Blessed, in fact, never surrendered to the offenses and slander against her. She always responded by spreading love everywhere especially among the weakest, and most disadvantaged, and working for the religious education of the young.

Not only this, but she knew how to share her ardent desire to love God and her brothers and sisters with whom she began a unique experience of religious life dedicated to the Sacred Heart, in which  prayer and suffering emerge as the essential elements of the charism. These are dimensions which were never lacking in the life of the Blessed, which she used to grow the Institute and governed it. She left as a legacy to the Church a very up to date interpretation of the meaning of authority as an expression and gift of love.

Dear Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, today we rejoice with you as we witness Mother Clelia being enrolled among the Blesseds. We ask you to keep alive her charism and especially her self-sacrificing spirituality whose heart is love which endures and forgives. The mission, for which your religious family was founded is always in vogue. The motto of your Institute, Caritas Christi urget nos – the Love of Christ impels us – commits you to making your own these words of St. Paul, spreading love endlessly and without limits.

Let us ask the Lord that the path to holiness which Mother Clelia Merloni has shown to us by her life and sustained by love for the Cross, might become each day the luminous and safe path of our journey of love for God and for our brothers and sisters.

Let us repeat together: Blessed Clelia Merloni, pray for us!